1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to lens components.
2. Related Art
An optical module is known that converts electrical signal into optical signal, or optical signal into electrical signal. Such an optical module includes an optical fiber, a photoelectric conversion element that emits and receives light, and an optical coupling element (lens component) that optically couples the photoelectric conversion element and the optical fiber (see, for example, JP-A-2009-163212).
The lenses in the lens component of related art such as the foregoing publication are designed for optimum shape according to the optically coupled light emitting and receiving element and optical fiber so that optical coupling of these elements can be efficiently achieved. This means that lens components of different lens surface profiles are produced for each different optically coupled light emitting and receiving element and optical fiber.
Such lens components typically have small lens diameters of 1 mm or less, and the lens surface profiles may differ merely by the slight difference in the curvature of the lens surface. This makes it difficult to distinguish between lens components when these products are mixed together. The present inventors looked into this problem, and thought of marking lens components to enable each individual lens components to be distinguished from one another. It was found, however, that marking a lens component involves the risk of causing a change in the flow of the resin during the injection molding of the lens component, and lowering the profile accuracy of the lens.